Anthony Weiner

The Coming Battle

Posted by Michael Drury

Anthony Weiner is not quite movie star handsome, but he’s close… and his chiseled jaw line and sharp tongue have become familiar to politically oriented TV viewers across the nation.

The focus of his ambition seems, however, to remain local (if New York City can really be thought of as a ”locality”). He’s hinted he wants to Mayor and the pundits and reporters who cover him believe him.

He also has a certain amount of momentum. He gained name recognition during the 2009 campaign season in part because he seemed to be the only guy the Bloomberg machine really feared. (A Bloomberg operative told me that the campaign actually altered the timing of the Brooklyn canvassing schedule to saturate the neighborhood where Weiner’s mother lives to send a message to Weiner early in the spring).

Because of the anomaly of Bloomberg’s term-limits fake out, the election authorities allowed Weiner to keep the five million he raised for that 2009 race, which is the maximum; so now Anthony, or Tony Hot Dog-as a certain former staffer likes to call him-can sit back and weigh his options.

But, the fact remains you don’t become the top guy in New York City without a fight, and 2013 is setting up to be a no-holds-barred scrum. Three years out and likely contenders Christine Quinn, Bill DeBlasio, and Scott Stringer are already mixing it up, in a kerfuffle about the mysterious finances of the City Council.

It’s early days yet, but a Marist poll taken on April 13th shows that no one is really ahead of the pack, although Weiner enjoys a very slight lead in the Democratic primary against others known to be considering a run.

Here’s the current break down of registered Democrats:

Congressman Anthony Weiner -18%

Former Comptroller/losing candidate Bill Thompson-15%

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn -12%

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio -10%

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. -10%

Comptroller John Liu-9%

And there are others who may be biding their time until the actual campaign season begins. Former Bronx Borough president Adolfo Carrión has just been tapped by Obama to lead the New York and New Jersey Office of Housing and Urban Development and he apparently has a war chest of $3 million and is said to be considering a bid for either Comptroller or Mayor.

Also there is the formidable presence of Mayor Bloomberg. He trashed term limits to try to solidify his legacy as Mayor and will be sure to want to influence the outcome of the next election, especially to preserve the changes he has made to the school system. He may try to put forward one of his friends in the business community to carry on with the Mayor’s program.

He’s said to be thinking of Dick Parsons former head of Time Warner, who is currently trying to rescue Citi Group from the repercussions of it’s recent excesses with collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps.  He is probably the most powerful African-American Business leader in the country.

Harold Ford, who seems to be interested in setting up shop in New York any-way-he-can might, despite his recent embarrassing performance, try for a big apple play.

So when Anthony Weiner does what everyone expects him to do and follows his dream of becoming Mayor, he will be jumping from a relatively comfortable seat into a mosh-pit full of sharp elbows.

The Most Common Phrase in Politics

Posted by Michael Drury

Anyone that watches politics in this country (and probably all other countries for that matter) can’t help but notice that certain catch phrases are used a lot.

This morning while watching the Sunday political talk shows, I began to wonder which of the political clichés I was hearing on Chris Matthews and Meet the Press, was actually the most used.

I started googling  things like “appealing to their base” (-6,010 hits), “facing a challenge from the right” (-4,080), “pass a litmus test” (-8,160)…

Disappointed at how low these numbers were, I decided to try more general political phrases, the only rule being that they had to have at least four words.

I began to hit pay dirt with things like “has abused his office” (-120,000), and “for illegal campaign contributions” (-201,000), but the real pay off in terms of search results came when I began to try platitudes: “No more politics as usual” had  360,000 hits and “if  elected I will…” got 20,000 more than that.

I thought I’d done more or less as well as I could when I got an idea based this weeks blog on Anthony Weiner to try “I have introduced legislation.” Sure enough- the mother load… the exact phrase got 1.2 million results.

Picture 1

“I have  introduced legislation” is the among the most common phrases in politics because that’s what legislators do to reach out to helpful constituencies in their district: they introduce legislation that will never have a chance of becoming law, but will allow them to claim they are making an effort on behalf of the important constituencies.

Anthony Weiner has introduced 177 bills during 6 terms in the House, bills with names like… “H.R. 2978: To prohibit United States assistance for the Palestinian Authority and for programs, projects, and activities in the West Bank and Gaza, unless certain conditions are met Act of 2007.”

Of the bills he has introduced, exactly one has been signed into law: “The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT) of 2009.”

The truth is that sponsoring even one bill that actually becomes law places Weiner in an elite club.

Of the 290 bills sponsored by New York City’s Congressional delegation during the  current Congress, 14 have become Law. Of those 14 laws, ten were passed by Charles Rangel, who as former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was among the most powerful members of the House. Even so eight of those ten bills were federal operational spending bills with few associated bragging rights.

The three other NYC house members who got bills passed are as follows:

Nydia Velasquez sponsored nine bills and got one passed that “Extends through July 31, 2009 the Small Business Act or the Small Business Investment Act of 1958”

Joseph Crowley, sponsored 19 bills and got one arcane corporate tax bill through  that “increases the estimated tax payments of certain corporations in the third quarter of 2014 by .25%, and reduces the fourth quarter installment to reflect such increase and renews the President’s authority to ban the import of Burmese products.”

Jose Serrano, who sposored 23 bills, managed to pass one that “Makes available up to $40 million of funds appropriated for the business loan program of the Small Business Administration”

That’s why the phrase “I have passed legislation…” is a comparatively rare political saying.

Weiner gets White Powder (not the fun kind)

Posted by Michael Drury

Nine people had to be  evacuated from Anthony Weiner’s office in  Kew Gardens today, because of a letter with “white powder” and a note that told him to “drop dead”. The Powder will be checked thoroughly, but initial tests deemed it to be neither fun nor dangerous. The FBI called the note potentially threating .
Aside from the fear that this might cause the representative, it’s probably a good thing for his political standing and for the Democrats in general.
As the anger of the right takes concrete form in hateful letters and telephone calls to supporters of health care, it serves to highlight a distinction between the two parties in terms of identity: The Democrat’s relatively principled handling of recent political conflict, versus the seeming incitement to lawlessness by the Republicans.

Since the coming mid-term electoral battle is for voters from the political center, Weiner and the Democrats stand to gain from lawlessness in two ways.
First, despite their general anti-inside-the-beltway sympathies, Independents probably will not be swayed by the insistence of Republican leaders that they have in not played a part in stoking these ugly displays. Democrats being attacked for voting their principles are likely to be seen in a sympathetic light.
Secondly, If one accepts that part of the purpose of the recent Republican obstructionism was to make the Democrats seem incapable of governing, the association of the Republican Party with lawless behavior by people inspired by their rhetoric will not help them earn the mantle of authority and stability.
The mid-term elections seem to be breaking badly for the Democrats, but if they do seem to benefit at the polls from ongoing outrageous displays from the right. Weiner, being one of the lighting rods for these developments will perhaps enhance his stature within the Democratic hierarchy, which is an important consideration for a politician who is widely seen as having ambitions beyond the confines of his current role.
The 9th District is fairly reliably Democratic, and many of the more conservative elements are likely to be Orthodox Jews, who will not be pleased at the sight of a fellow Jew being threatened, so it probably also benefits him locally.

Weiner smacks down Peggy Noonan and it feels so good.

Posted by Michael Drury

The problem with complicated things is that they aren’t easily explained. After public opinion scuttled the dreams of generals and their pals during the Vietnam War, certain interests in this country got together and funded Institutes to examine how to explain certain things to the American people.

That’s how the complex issue of the taxing inheritances over $3.5 million became the far more easily understood notion of “the death tax” and  how the regulation of multi-national corporation’s campaign contributions came to be understood in terms of “attacking the fundamental rights of all Americans to express themselves.”

Peggy Noonan likes to explain things like this, she did it for Ronald Reagan. When he was shifting the national agenda to wards the star wars program and she did it this week in the Wall Street Journal when she explained that Obama had wasted a year of the nation’s precious time dealing with the “tangential” issue of healthcare, when he should be doing more important things like visiting our friends in Australia.

Peggy is of the opinion that thinking about the economy and health care at the same time is too complicated to fit into a single understandable explanation. Anthony Weiner begged to differ. He explained the situation to her on Morning Joe. Please watch (it comes at the end).

Jay-Z to 'Spread Love' to Clarke

Posted by David Montalvo

From Brooklyn corners, burnin branches of sticky

Spread love, Biggie, Brooklyn, hippie

I pity, the fool with jewels like Mr. T

With long history in my borough, they borrow

With no intentions of returnin, tomorrow

Brooklyn, we go hard! We go hard!

In his latest album, international rap artist Jay-Z brought his old stomping ground on the world stage in his track “Brooklyn Go Hard.” But it’s the superstar’s U.S. tour that may impact Brooklyn in more ways than just adding the name to potentially millions of playlists – the tour may impact local politics.

Rep. Yvette Clark, Democrat of New York’s Congressional District 11 in Brooklyn, will get an early campaign boost – at least financially – next month at a fundraiser event tied with Jay-Z and his BP3 Concert in Washington, D.C.

Sure, Beyonce’s husband might be feeling love for Brooklyn (just see how closely he still identifies to the borough – lyrically), or maybe it’s love for the work the democratic congresswoman has done there. But there’s also a little politics going on worth noting. The concert, managed by Live Nation, a global live entertainment company whose roster includes Madonna and Kylie Minogue, is lobbying Congress on H.R. 848, a performance rights act, which Ms. Clarke has co-sponsored.

Several others of Ms. Clarke’s New York City congressional colleagues also co-sponsored the bill – among them Joseph Crowley, Carolyn Maloney, Jarrold Nadler and Anthony Weiner – though they are not getting the same treatment by Jay-Z (perhaps other Live Nation artists will fundraise for them).

But there are other representatives benefiting from Jay-Z’s March concert in Washington. Joining Ms. Clarke that evening are election campaigns for Sanford Bishop of Georgia, Andre Carson of Indiana. At this time, neither of them have co-sponsored the bill above.

A contact for Ms. Clarke reelection campaign could not be reached before this posting went live.

Tickets for the Jay-Z-Clarke concert will cost a pretty penny in this sluggish economy: $1500 for one ticket or, for an additional thousand dollars, the ticket buyer can get a second one – and won’t have to go alone.